1. Technical Field
This invention relates to encoded control systems, and more specifically, to a device for controlling a ceiling fan and its associated light fixtures, and a method wherein the transmission of a signal is encoded.
2. Background of the Related Art
Current ceiling fan systems may comprise a motor, fan blades, at least one light fixture located below the fan blades, a light fixture located above the fan blades, and a device to control the ceiling fan system, such as an AC-coupled wall control unit. Such a device for controlling a ceiling fan system is inefficient as these devices utilize a method of control in which control signals are sent from the control unit to the ceiling fan by modulating them onto the AC power line, thus reducing the AC power to the fan, causing unwanted fluctuations in the fan speed and light intensity.
Such wall control units also lack variation in functionality, as most only provide the ability to turn off and on the fan and its associated light fixtures, and do not allow for user-defined variations in the light intensity and fan speed. Further, the few wall control units that do allow greater user-control do not feature the ability to adjust the direction of fan blade rotation.
It is desirable to control fan and light settings through use of a remote control system in addition to the wall-mounted controller. A remote control system can utilize wireless communication between a transmitter and a receiver over some sort of wireless medium, such as Radio Frequency (RF) or infrared light (IR). Such a method can suffer from interference from other wireless controllers using the same wireless medium. Accordingly, it is advantageous to encode the transmitted signal so that only the desired receiver only receives commands from the desired transmitter, thereby eliminating interference from other sources. It is also desirable to provide a self-programmable receiver for receiving the encoded instructions from the remote controller so that the receiver can be readily programmed to work with different remotes.